Saturday, February 11, 2006

Geeks are from Mars and nongeeks are from Venus

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to the use of computers by the "masses", is geek v nongeek. I don't mean vs in the sense they oppose each other, but rather the differences in traits. There is a mindset that understands computers. A person with that mindset will intuitively function with a computer. No manuals, no training, they can navigate through and work software new or old. It's more than just being a logical thought process. If you a geek you've seen it before. You sit down in front of the computer to help someone. You complete what seems like a simple task and the expression on your helpee's face is one of the like that you just pulled a rabbit out of your hat. On the other end you've worked on completing a task for what seems like and hour and you ask for help. Your helper sits down at the computer and quickly, much quicker than you write it down, rattles through a series of what are totally foreign tasks. This isn't a problem, people are different. But as computers become more and more interwoven with daily life they need to function with all types of people. Now the problem arises not because people are different, but it arises because the people who "setup" or program the computers setup the computers to work how they think they should work. Then to compound the problem who writes the instruction manual for the person to use the computer? Of course the person with the same thought process. I'm not solving the problem here. But the first step to resolution is identification. Hopefully I've covered that.